Bitcoin extortion case: Gujarat CID arrests three constables

In his complaint to CID Crime in February, Bhatt, a builder based in Surat, had alleged that Amreli police personnel had kidnapped him and Paladia from Gandhinagar and extorted bitcoins worth over Rs 9 crore which were in possession of Paladia.

Investigators have so far arrested 13 people, including the complainant Shailesh Bhatt’s business partner Kirit Paladia, Amreli superintendent of police Jagdish Patel, Amreli local Crime Branch inspector Anant Patel, nine constables and a middleman. (Representational Image)

Three constables of Amreli district police were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the bitcoins extortion case in which two police officers are already in custody, an official said. “We arrested three constables attached with Local Crime Branch of Amreli district today in the Bitcoin extortion case,” said Deputy Inspector General, CID-Crime, Deepankar Trivedi.

With these fresh arrests, all the nine constables from Amreli district who were made accused in the case have been taken into custody. While two of them were arrested in April, four were arrested on Monday, said Trivedi.

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In his complaint to CID Crime in February, Bhatt, a builder based in Surat, had alleged that Amreli police personnel had kidnapped him and Paladia from Gandhinagar and extorted bitcoins worth over Rs 9 crore which were in possession of Paladia. In his complaint, Bhatt alleged that Kotadia was also involved in the extortion conspiracy.

CID had arrested Paladia in May, after it turned out during the probe that he was the mastermind of the entire conspiracy to ‘loot’ 176 bitcoins of Bhatt and distribute the money, by selling this cryptocurrency, amongst themselves, the police personnel and others.

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